Three Strikes Against Sonoma County’s Public Safety Record
Our Supervisors allege they are doing their best to address public safety risks from wildfires, yet three recent actions tell a totally different story.
Citizen advocates are sounding the alarm: Sonoma County’s proposed sub-par practices are needlessly putting firefighters’ and residents’ lives at risk.
First, in the spring, Supervisors, under the guise of “affordable housing,” advocated for permitting unrestricted accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in high fire risk areas, essentially doubling the potential population requiring evacuation.
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Then, throughout the summer, our County lobbied the Rural Counties Representatives of California (RCRC), to follow Sonoma’s lead and put political pressure on the State to downgrade its fire safe road regulations.
And recently, instead of making the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection’s (BOF) requested changes to comply with State standards, Sonoma County further gutted its 2019 Ordinance so that now the August 2020 Fire Ordinance exempts all existing roads from safety standards, actually reduces width requirements for new roads, and allows long, dead-end roads to have only a single lane.
A core issue is the requirement that road widths must allow safe access for emergency equipment and concurrent civilian evacuation. The moral of the story: while our non-resident neighbors get the opportunity to make money from vacation rentals, residents have to fear being burned alive in their evacuation vehicles.
Luckily, on September 22nd, once again, the State BOF sent Sonoma County back to redraft portions of its Fire Ordinance and Administrative Policy. The State held firm: For the Ordinance to be certified, Sonoma County must comply with State Responsibility Area (SRA) Fire Safe Regulations.
BOF members voiced concerns that Sonoma’s inconsistent terminology and conflated issues in the less restrictive 2020 Ordinance add unnecessary confusion. Thus, BOF staff was directed to prepare a compliance matrix, comparing Sonoma County’s 2019 Ordinance and new 2020 Ordinance and Administrative Policy to the State’s SRA standards.
KNOW THE LAW FOR DEFENSIBLE SPACE AND HARDENING YOUR HOME: https://www.readyforwildfire.org/more/fire-safety-laws/
The Walbridge Fire, in steep watershed areas extending from Lake Sonoma to McCray Ridge, demonstrated the importance of road standards that provide concurrent access to protect public safety and provide for firefighting efficiency.
On August 21st, the Press Democrat raised the issue of narrow roads impeding the ability to defend structures, “Because their (fire) trucks were too big to get into the remote stretches of Mill Creek Road, they were engaged in … bulldozing fire breaks around vulnerable homes.” Sadly, when the rains come, these fire breaks pose significant erosion risks.
And, a recent NY Times article, “How climate migration will reshape America,” referred to a recent study projecting a 20 percent increase in extreme-fire weather days by 2035. The author stated that land use practices encouraging residential and commercial development in wildfire-vulnerable zones, using Sonoma County’s practices as an example, “suggests a special form of climate negligence.”
Video: Between one of the most active Atlantic hurricane seasons on record and the massive wildfires still raging on the West Coast, the U.S. is witnessing an unprecedented onslaught of natural disasters this year. Abrahm Lustgarten, a New York Times senior reporter investigating climate, joined CBSN to explain how climate migration will reshape the nation and the lasting impacts these disasters will have on cities.
BOF members expressed deep concerns and asked pointed questions. Instead of more obscure and confusing policy language, the BOF requested County officials demonstrate, in writing, how the Ordinance actually works to ensure fire safe roads for new development. And, members questioned how often Sonoma County places additional public safety requirements on a new housing and commercial cannabis developments.
Affordable housing needs will not be solved by exempting new ADUs and small-scale subdivisions from fire safe road standards. This practice merely puts more people in harm’s way.
Read more on Fire-Safe Roads for Wildfire Resiliency by the Advocacy Director at Greenbelt Alliance
If public safety is important to you, please request our Supervisors amend Sonoma County’s Fire Ordinance to meet or exceed the State’s clear requirement that public and private roads provide safe access for emergency wildfire equipment and unobstructed egress for residents. Your life may depend on it.
https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/PRMD/Fire-Prevention/County-Fire-Code/
